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Stay Golden, Ponyboy

You ever have one of those days where you feel golden?  Like, everything you did was pretty awesome and productive?  (You know, the opposite of anything that happens in our nation's capital?)

That was yesterday for me.  The whole day just felt good, you know?  I mean, most days I have pockets of awesomeness, but they're not usually connected and consistent.

First.  Bone-in chicken breasts on sale at the local Fareway.  For me, that means: practice chicken fabrication skills and make stock.


Making my own stock is always one of the most satisfying tasks I am currently aware of.  After a day of simmering chicken carcass, mirepoix, and other sundry seasonings, I froze 18 cups worth of stock this morning.  That's four and a half of those boxes of Swanson's...at a fraction of the cost.

The chicken breasts I fabricated went into a crockpot for yestereve's dinner, as I put my own spin on this chicken recipe (fresh mango, not dried, apple jelly instead of the chutney, plus other changes I'd make when I do it again).  Keepin' it simple, I served it over brown rice.

Then, I've wanted to try roasting cauliflower for some time now, and last night was the night.  Tossed it with some olive oil, drizzled with garlic and lemon juice, and baked it in the cast-iron skillet at 500 degrees for 20 minutes.


For dessert, I did a bread pudding (for some reason, I suspect I'm in the midst of a great love affair with this particular concoction).  This BP was inspired by citrus - orange marmalade, dried cranberries and golden raisins, and an orange-caramel sauce.


The final plating...and do you see the problem here?


THE PLATE IS MONOCHROMATIC!  Everything is roughly the same hue of off-white!  The curry-coated chicken adds a little yellow, and the cranberry bits provide color and texture in the chutney, but other than that...

I didn't even notice it until I plated it up.  Everything tasted wonderful, but I couldn't help wishing I'd done a green item.  Roasted broccoli, maybe?

Oh well.  It's like American poet Robert Frost said, "Nothing gold can stay."


Comments

  1. SherryMarch 21, 2014 at 4:50 PM

    No roasted brussel sprouts? Love roasted brussel sprouts.

    ReplyDelete

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